What Doesn't Kill You
by Ink51
Summary: Normal, that's all had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. Life was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts. Daryl/oc
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I don't own The Walking Dead. This is purely a work of my overactive imagination. **

**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts.

'_Beep! Beeep! Beeeep! Beeee!-_''**smack!**'

"uuuuuuuugh!" GOD! I hated mornings. I rubbed my face deeper into my memory-foam pillow and pulled the sheets up to the bottom of my chin.

"Dillon...get up. I don't have time to deal with your lazy ass today. I have to go meet Mark for lunch at 2:00." My mom nagged at me. I am 18 years old, I graduated high school 3 weeks ago, I was top of my class, and I still need my mom to drive me places. Wow. Isn't the universe wonderful? With another moan of annoyance, I send my mother away with a mock salute of my hand. I can fell her rolling her eyes, she's slightly ticked. Good. Okay, no, I don't hate my mom. We're just on the best of terms. She divorced my dad when I was 15, just because she didn't want to live the hick life-style anymore. I'm originally from Oklahoma. But now I'm stuck in Atlanta, Georgia. Fun...not.

I pushed myself out of the bed and walked to my dresser. One thing about Atlanta is that, in the summer, it's HOT! Even more so in the city, seeing as how light reflects off all the metal and glass. I pull out a chocolate brown romper and a white tank-top. I slip the tank-top on over my black bra before putting on the romper, which I only button up half way so that you can see the undershirt. I slide into brown hiking boots which I put over white knee-high socks. I look more like I'm ready to climb a mountain that go to work. Oh well, I'm a hick.

"Dillon!"

"I'm coming!" jezz, in a hurry much? I grab my phone off the nightstand as well as my wallet and ear-buds.

Ah. Dave's pizza place. What a horridness name but, it matches the place.

"Good morning Dilly." Ugh hate that name!

"Morning, Anton." I felt the need to use mouth wash after say his name. Bleh, fucking pig. I walked into the back of the restaurant.

"Sup Dill?" ah finally someone I don't loath

"Not much Glenn. You?" I ask as I put on the nasty red and white checkered apron.

"Same." Glenn was awesome. We had known each other since our sophomore year in high school and had almost every class together. We really bonded when we found out we worked at the same pizza place. Anton (UGH!) takes the orders, I make the pizza, and Glenn delivers them. We're the tree musketeers, whoopee! Yes, that was sarcasm.

It was around 5:00. I only had another hour of work and I was really, really, ready to go home and go back to sleep.

"_Chough! Chough! Cough! Hack! Gag! Chough!_" okay...that was nasty. Anton had started coughing like that about 30 minutes ago. It was getting on my nerves. Now, I know y'all are thinking that I should be nice and kind and ask him if he needs anything but, once you've dealt with a guy who will stop at nothing to get in your pants, well, then you start to hate them.

"Awe man. Anton's coughing too?" I turn to see Glenn standing in the door way.

"Yeah. He started a bit after you left, why?" I asked not seeing the point. He was coughing... so what? We all cough

"Because, the entire city is coughing!" his voice held panic. I don't like panic. I like calm, collected – Oh my god! What was that? I spin on my heel to look at Anton. He's lying on the floor behind the front counter, twitching. A groan escapes his chapped lips, which are tinted a pale blue. That's not good.

"...Anton?" I ask slowly. He stops twitching and his eyes snap open, their glazed over and are colored a milky pale blue, much different to his dark brown ones. He starts growling at us and tries to sit up. Yeah...that ain't happening. I rip the metal cash-register off the counter and make the split second decision to throw it at his head. It connects with a loud _'clang'_ and he falls back. Blood starts to leak out from underneath. Oh my god I killed him. The ever observant Glenn seems to read my mind.

"...HOLY SHIT! You KILLED him!" he screams. Just as he yells this something outside explodes and screams from every direction fly into panic. Great. Glenn grabs my wrist and pulls me out the back door and I reach over and grab an aluminum baseball bat. We start sprinting around in the back alleys but skid to a stop as we come up on a woman leaning over a man, blood pools around him.

"Um, hey lady..." I start but the she turns around and all thoughts stop. The woman has the same milky pale blue eyes that Anton had as well as the translucent skin. I couldn't see her lips because they were covered in blood. She... had been eating the man. Gross. The lady slowly stood and started at me and Glenn for a few seconds, her soft groans filled the air, before she started charging us. Glenn took the bat from me and once the woman got in range, he slugged her in the face. Oh my GOD! The lady twitches and I take the bat again and slam it into her head. Then out of nowhere the man that had currently been munched on started groaning. So, I whacked him to. I griped Glenn's hand and pulled him towards my apartment.

Once there I noticed that even though cars were there, no people where. I'm starting to panic. We run up to my room number and in to much a hurry I kick in the door. Now, I'm sure you readers have noticed that I'm not your typical nerd. No that's Glenn. I am a bad ass nerd complete with a borderline psycho temper. I run to my room and fling open my closet, where I then I Glenn pull this big navy blue duffle bag from the top shelf. I'm 4'11" deal with it. The bag is slightly heavy, the reason is that I have a shot-gun, 3 pistols and a rifle in there I quickly un-zip it and start throwing some of my cloths in there as well as some of Glenn's. We used to study late into the night and mom was never home so he stayed the night, after a while he just left some cloths here.

I ran to the kitchen and started packing canned foods, mostly cans of backed beans and ravioli. I also got energy bars and the box of '5 hour energy' drinks. I re-zipped the bag and trough it at Glenn. He didn't even protest. I ran to the closet and pulled out two large bags: one was navy blue and had a white cross symbol on it, the other was a folded up tent put in a convenient backpack. I handed the bat to Glenn and ran back to my room. I returned a minute later carrying two swords, one was a katana the, other was a machete. Glenn was wide eyed but he didn't say anything. I grabbed a set of keys and Glenn and I set out to the parking lot. I clicked the unlock button and we climbed into and old black Honda. I put the keys in the ignition and pulled out into the street.

"I thought you didn't have a car." Glenn said, finally coming out of slight shock.

"I don't. This is...was my neighbor's car. Crazy old lady always lost her keys." I muttered, keeping my eyes on the road. I tried to take Atlanta's less traveled by roads but eventually got caught up in the frantic traffic.

"damn." I whispered, mostly to myself. There was no way we were gonna get out of this anytime soon.

After about an hour we had barley moved a foot. Ugh, I hate people. There was a knock on my window. I looked over to see a tall broadly built man with curly dark hair, he was also in a police uniform. Shit.

"Can I help you officer?" trying to act as nice as possible.

"We really need to get out of the city", no shit Sherlock "I'm going to break out of this and head out on a back road. You welcome to follow me." That was all he said before moving on. Glenn looked at me.

"Are we going to follow him." He asked

"Well...it's either that or die in traffic. So yeah, we're going to follow him." After 10 more minutes the officer walked back passed my car and I nodded to him. He got in the car and began to peal off to the left. I followed seconds later.

It was around 10:00 pm when we finally pulled up to a clearing near a small lake. During the drive I noticed we had about 15 cars following us. Once we had arrived, the first thing we all did was get out of our cars and started crowding together.

"My name is Officer Shane Walsh. This is Lori and Carl." The cop said gesturing to a tall woman with dark brown wavy hair and big doe eyes and a cute little kid no older than 12.

"Well Officer, why d'hell did yah bring all us here in da first place?" a thick backwoods country accent broke thought the silence. Everyone turned around and looked at two guys. The one who had spoken was tall and broad, even more so than the copper. He had a buzz cut and was wearing a biker vest. The other was tall and broad too but he was built more like the police-man. He had short dirty blonde hair and a flannel shirt with the sleeves torn off. "An who made yah king of us anyway?" My eye twitched. These were the type of men that made all country folk look stupid and brash.

"And who are you?" asked Shane

"My name is Merle Dixon and this here is my brother Daryl." Said buzz-cut "Now, why da' hell did yah drag us all out here? I mean ain't it obvious that all them city-slickers gonna die?" he spoke loudly and you could feel the panic level rise. Merle had a twisted smile on his face, he was enjoying this. The kids started to look scared and on the verge of crying. Yep, that where I draw the line.

"Shut your mouth, redneck!" I snapped people turned to look at me, I was just sitting on the top of the little Honda.

"Whad you say ta me?" he seemed irritated by me. Good.

"I said 'shut your mouth.' Did you hear me that time?" I'm going to regret this.

"Well miss sugar tits-" another line drawn and crossed

"My name ain't 'sugar tits'" I snarled, this is not gonna go well, plus Glenn is starting to fidget.

"And that is?"

"One you don't need to know." I snapped smartly. Im pretty sure I heard him grind his teeth. I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. Shane started to talk again, something about tents. I could feel three sets of eyes on me. One was from Glenn, his eyes full of worry. Another from Merle, his was irritated and lustful (ewwwwwww), and the last was from Daryl, I think. He looked at me with neither expressions, but with curiosity. Shane had finished talking and people started setting up tents. I hoped of the Honda and stood next to Glenn, I only came up to the bottom of his chin. I heard some people laugh in humor, some snort in amazement, and could see the eyebrows rise on a few.

"Well would yah look at dat Daryl, it's a midget and a chink!" Merle shouted. I clenched my fists ready to attack but Glenn laid his hand on my shoulder and shook his head telling me that it wasn't worth it and helped me set up the tent. This was gonna be a long survival.

**AN: Thank you for reading. Please rate and review.**


	2. Chapter 2

****AN: I don't own The Walking Dead. This is purely a work of my overactive imagination.**  
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**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts.

It was only the second day of being here at Camp Living, and I was dieing!

"Its sooooo HOT!" I griped to Glenn as I lay sprawled across one of the two open sleeping bags that other survivors had given me and Glenn.

"Yes, I know. I heard you the last 30 times...now will you _PLEASE_ put clothes on?" he said blankly but slightly annoyed.

"UGH! Why?" I whined. It was true; here I lay in only a black bra and black and yellow striped boxers.

"Because we don't need people thinking we're involved." Glenn said unimpressed by my pout. "Now put clothes on before I kick your lazy ass out of the tent. I bet Merle would love that." We both paused for a second, then shuddered violently "Too far?" he asked. I nodded quickly.

"Yeah, too far. WAY too far. Now I'm going to have nightmares about just changing my shirt! Thanks Glenn!" I chew out at him and he just nodded.

I dug thru my duffel-bag and pulled out a black tank to and camo cargo-pants. After slipping that on, I quickly put on my hiking boots. Glenn was scavenging around our tent.

"What ch'ya lookin for?" my Oki accent was coming into play. Great. Glenn just sighed and stood up scratching the back of his head before picking up his red and orange hat. I had one to, they were for that shit pizza place we used to work at. But, I'll burn in heaven and freeze in hell before I wear it ever again.

"...can I...borrow your duffel bag?" he asked looking at the floor. Something was up.

"...why?" I asked suspiciously raising my eyebrow.

"...um...I want to make a supply run."

"To where?"

"...Atlanta." (insert cricket chirps)

"WHAT?" I half shrieked, not wanting others to hear my verbal fury. "Are you insane? WHY? What is so important that you would want to go back _there_?" I hissed waving my arms around in wrenching motions.

"Because we need some stuff. I promise ill be in and out, no sweat!" he bargained. I just glared all the daggers in the world at his face. And he smiled stupidly at me, trying to get his way. We stood like that for five minutes before I gave in. He was right, we did need things. Plus this was too much for me to deal with at 8 o'clock in the morning.

"Fine!" I snarled at him, emptying out my bag and handing it over to him "But if you die, I will kill you!" yesterday morning he would have laughed, today he just smiles grimly. Both of us knowing how true it could be. "You have until sunset, any later and I'm telling on you." I nagged painting on a light smirk.

"Who? My mom?" he teased back and my smirk grew evil.

"Worse. I'll tell Shane!" I chirped. In the past two days everyone, except our resident rednecks, learned that Shane was in charge and his word was law! Going against Shane was equal to cussing God out in church. You just didn't do it. Well, unless you were the Dixon's or as I call them 'Dick-sons'! Glenn laughed and nodded, promising that he'd be back before sun-down. He grabbed the bag and hugged me.

"Be careful." I told him and he smiled at me

"I'm Korean, remember? I'm a ninja, stealth is in my blood!" he chuckled and I snickered.

"Bring me back some chocolate!" I called as he left the tent.

I cleaned up around the tent till 8:30 am before leaving the make-do home. There was a surprising amount of people up. You'd think they'd want to sleep in.

"Dillon!" I turned and looked at the blonde headed girl who called me.

"Hey Amy." I smiled at her and walked over to where she was pulling off clothes and folding them. "What's up?"

"Oh...not much, you know with the apocalypse and all." She smirked as she folded yet another shirt. "Wanna help?" she jokingly asked. I pulled my lips back in a silent snarl stating my dislike of the idea. Yesterday I had made it very clear that I, Dillon Abbot Nathans, did NOT do what was considered 'women's work'.

_Merle and Daryl had left sometime early that morning and I silently prayed that they wouldn't come back. But my luck just doesn't run that way. So, around noon the two dumb asses came back. Merle had his shotgun laid over his shoulder and a cigarette in his nasty ass mouth. I have asthma and another reason to hate the man. Daryl, on the other hand, had his crossbow strung across his back and was carrying a string with at least a dozen or so small mammals tied to it. Both were dirty as hell. They went into their tent and came out about 15 minutes later, now clean. Daryl sat down in one of those camping chairs and started skinning the critters. Merle had a metal bucket in his hands, full of his and Daryl's dirty clothes._

"_Hey Darlin' why don't you be a good little girl and wash these." He smirked as he thrust the bucket into my arms. The other women gave me pitying looks as did Glenn and some of the other men. To say the least, I was pissed, embarrassed and insulted. And as most men should know 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'. I glared at the jackass as he smirked smugly at me. Out the corner of my eye I saw Daryl had stopped skinning. I clenched my teeth and with in a second, I tipped the bucket over, dumping the clothes into the dirt and thrust the bucket at his fat red necked head. I stormed of after the muttering dark obscenities about skinning him alive. The rest of the day I helped a quite but nice man named Jim._

It was around 1pm and I was tired, hot, and bored. I had nothing to do, because I refused to do women's work and none of the men had anything they wanted me to do. So, here was lying on my back in the middle of camp watching as white fluffy clouds passed overhead. There was the snap on a stick coming from the woods behind me and I rolled onto my stomach looking for movement. Daryl came marching out of the woods and I relaxed a little. He froze as he saw me just laying there. He raised an eyebrow, probably questioning my sanity. After a few seconds he shook his head and sat down in his little camping chair and once again started skinning small mammals. I observed him for a good half hour, he only had about 4 squirrels done and was working on a 5th , now normally I really wouldn't care but, he had about 20 of those poor suckers. He would be skinning all night.

With a heavy sigh, I pushed my self of the ground and walked over to him and the squirrels. As soon as I got with in 5 feet of him he stopped skinning and stared hostilely at me as I approached even closer. I sat down next to the squirrels, about a foot away from him, and pulled one off the string and pulled out my ka-bar.

"...whad'er yah thank yer doin?" he asked skeptically and distrustfully.

"Helpin yah skin the rodents." I softly told him. He watched me for as I skinned the squirrel, making sure I didn't mess up. I made a cut thru the base of the tail, careful not to cut the on top of the butt. Next, I placed the squirrel on the ground in front of me and made a small cut towards the head. I cut the skin in front of the hind legs peeled the hide towards the head, exposing the front legs. Placing my foot on the tail and pulled the hide down to the back feet, I pulled the front legs thru and cut off the feet, then the back feet, and lastly the head. I handed the furless carcass to him and he inspected it before nodding and handing it back. He reached beside him and placed a bucket between us for the entrails. I smiled and gutted the critter and set it on a cloth before grabbing another one. Rinse and repeat.

Daryl and I got the squirrels done around 2:30 and I took them over to the really tall woman, named Lori. I smiled at her and walked over to Amy, who was resting in the shade of an umbrella on top of an RV owned by an old man name Dale. He was nice and reminded me of my grandfather. I sat next to her.

"Sup, Amy?" I asked resting against her shoulder.

"...not much. How about you? Getting close to the backwoods boys I see." I lifted my head off her shoulder and slowly turned my head to face her. She wore a smug accusing smirk while I wore a confused frown, though we were matched on our eyebrow raises.

"What ch'ya talkin about?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes.

"I can see the whole camp from here" she swept her arm in at the tents, "don't think I didn't see you skinning those nasty creatures, with hillbilly Joe!" she laughed, I shook my head.

"You won't think they're nasty when you're eatin 'em." I smiled at her.

"You didn't deny your friendliness to Daryl." She pointed out, her smirk grew larger "Do you like him?" she asked nudging me in the side. I scoffed and pushed her, rolling my eyes.

"Yes Amy. Just because I skinned squirrels with him it means I'm in love the huntin man." I said, sarcasm poured from every syllable. She laughed but, dropped the subject.

"...Hey, I just noticed. Where's Glenn?" she asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know. I ain't his keeper!" I laughed.

**AN: Thank you for reading. Please rate and review.**


	3. Chapter 3

****AN: I don't own The Walking Dead. This is purely a work of my overactive imagination.**  
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**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts.

I sat on my sleeping bag with two flat stones in one hand and my machete in the other. I griped the area of the blade closest to the hilt between the flat rocks firmly so that they didn't slip. Then slowly I pulled the blade back and slid the rocks forward, creating a soft screeching noise. Once I got to the tip of it, I pulled away and inserted it at the hilt once more. I repeated these actions for about ten minutes before setting the stones to the side. I griped the handle on the weapon tightly, now was not the time for the blade to slip. I lay the blade across the top of my wrist and gently ran the blade up the length of my forearm. I set the machete to my side and lifted my arm to eye level, it was smooth. I had gotten the blade sharp enough for it to take hair of the skin.

I was about to start working on my katana, when the zipper to the 'door' of the tent opened to show my Asian. He was red faced and his breathing was slightly labored but he grinned fully at me to let me know he was ok. I hopped up and he set the bag down before hugging me.

"Told you I'd come back! And with an hour to spare!" he laughed as we pulled apart. I glanced at the bag before looking at him only to do a double take. The bag was stuffed to the brim! I could literally see the stitches and seams stretching. I looked at him wide eyed. Yes, Glenn was in shape but he was the skinny type of in shape, not the muscled type of in shape like how Daryl was. How the hell did he haul this much stuff back with him? He must have noticed my shocked look because he started laughing.

"I got some presents for you." He chuckled as he sat on his sleeping bag and started to unzip my near exploding bag. He pulled out a baseball bat.

"Is that mine?" I asked sounding like a little kid waiting to be passed her gifts at Christmas

"Nope." Glenn laughed. He was going to mess with me by pulling out everything and giving me my stuff last. That basterd. He pulled out a crow bar.

"Is that mine?"

"No."

Cans of beef, fruit, and vegetables

"Are those mine?"

"No."

Shotgun bullets

"How 'bout those?"

"No, these are for Shane."

5 minutes later, and the bag looked almost empty, and I was getting impatient. Finally, he pulled out two things that just about made me cry, not tears, but waterfalls of happiness. First was a spiked mace, brand new by the looks of the unstained wood on the baseball bat looking area with 21 shiny black 2 inch spikes. The second item was a large bag of Kit Kats. At that precise moment I felt as if the world had suddenly reverted back to the way was it was and life was good. Glenn must have seen something in my eyes because he set down the mace and bag of candy, seconds before I lunged myself at him, tackling him to the floor.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK GOD FOR YOU!" I squealed hugging him around the shoulders and nearly squeezed the life out of him, but he let me have my moment of complete and total joy as he lay there under me laughing and patting me on the back.

"Okay, Okay!" he sighed breathlessly "I know your happy but I still need to breath!" I quickly detached myself from his torso and sat back on the ground beside him, the bag of chocolates in my arm, all the while I wore a stupid little grin that reminded us both of better days.

The sun had fallen about an hour ago and everyone in camp sat around one of four fires. The fire Glenn and I sat at came with Shane, Lori, Carl, T-dog, Dale, Andrea, Amy, Jacqui, Jim, Morales and his wife and kids. At the fire to my left sat 3 people, a man named Ed, and his wife and daughter, Carol and Sophia, the woman and girl were sweet and helpful but, Ed? Yeah he gave me the creeps. Beyond them sat 10 other people. To my far right sat Merle and Daryl. They had a little fire going on in front of their tent. Well actually it was just Daryl sitting and eating in front of the tent; Merle had taken his food inside and hadn't come back out. I frowned at that. Why would the two brothers eat separately? For some reason that thought bothered me.

For dinner, everyone ate some canned beans, we gave all the canned food to Shane so that he could decide how to divide them, and 'grilled' squirrel. They thanked both Glenn and I for the meal.

"Why are y'all thankin me? I didn't do anything." I said, shoveling a plastic spoon full of beans in to my mouth. Lori looked at me, confused.

"You're the one who got the squirrel." She told me as I was swallowing and I just about chocked.

"Huh?" I coughed out, looking at her with wide eyes as I pressed a hand to my chest and Glenn patted me on my back. "Who the hell told you, I was the one who got the squirrel?" I asked a little irritably. She pursed he lips in confusion.

"You brought it to me." She pushed, thinking that I was to modest to admit my deeds

"That doesn't mean I'm the one who caught them!" I slightly growled, enough for only Glenn to notice. He knew I hated it when people gave others credit that they didn't deserve.

"Then who did?" asked Shane. And that was the last of my patience for this topic.

"I don't know." I snapped at him, causing his and other's eyes to go wide. "Why don't you go ask the only guy here that has a crossbow and some god damn hunting experience?" I growled, jerking my thumb over my shoulder and pointing it in Daryl's direction. Everyone just sat there sort of stunned by my defensive outburst, sometimes looking form me to Daryl and then back to me.

"Then why-" Lori tried to speak again and I was about ready to throw one of the flaming logs at her face. Luckily Amy stopped her.

"She just helped him clean them." Short and simple, just how I like it. Thank god for Amy.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't hate Lori or Shane or anyone else here but people annoy me, always have and for as long as there are people left, they always will. Especially women, some are to shy to say anything (Carol) and then some are to sociable to shut up (Lori). Plus women are quick to judge for no reason.

I finished my food and set my plate in the wash bucket before walking to me tent. I noticed some people watching Daryl, who was staring awkwardly at his plate. I just realized I might have given him some attention that he didn't want with my outburst. Oh well too late to do anything about it now. I entered the tent and took off my pants, leaving my tank top on before lying down in my sleeping bag. After about 10 minutes I was out.

Morning came with a swift nudge to my ribs causing me to jolt into a sit position and reach for the nearest weapon, which was one of the three pistols. I yanked it out from under my pillow, flipped off the safety, and aimed for the head of the nudger.

"WHOA! Don't shoot!" a woman shouted, and as my vision cleared, I saw Amy standing at my side, a basket of clothes under one arm, and shielding her self with one hand. Like that would do any thing. I groaned and flipped the safety back, before lying the gun down and rubbing my eyes.

"What do yah want? Can't you see I'm sleeping?" I moaned at her. She lowered her hand.

"Glenn said you two needed some clothes to be washed." She said, looking around our tent. I had to think for a minute before I sighed and stood up as I stretched, popping my shoulders, spine, and neck back into place with loud cracking sounds. I pulled off my tank-top and boxers put on my last clean bra and pair of underwear and over that a red, black, and white plaid ¾ sleeve flannel shirt and some torn shorts. I walked around the tent scooping up both Glenn and my clothes that we had just flung around when we were done wearing them. I walked back over to Amy and dropped them in her basket.

"There!" I said sleepily smiling at her. She gave a breathy laugh at my antics and walked out, mumbling something about how I was such a man. I love you too Amy

**AN: Thank you for reading. Please rate and review.**


	4. Chapter 4

******AN: I don't own The Walking Dead. This is purely a work of my overactive imagination.****  
><strong>

**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts.

It's been three weeks here at Camp Living, and for living in a zombie apocalypse, it's been pretty normal. If you count living like we're in the pre-colonial days normal but, I suppose that if our ancestors could do it than so can we! Ok, that was a lie. Nobody here could have survived those days...well, except maybe Daryl. Every other day, that man just wonders off in the early morning, he's gone before dawn and comes back around noon, usually with about 20 to 40 squirrels or small critters.

Glenn was sulking over in his corner of the tent. He had been caught by Dale trying to sneak off to make another supply run. In the three weeks we've been here, he has committed eight runs. So far, he's brought me back a set of kitchen knives, Dr. Pepper, a canteen, a compound bow and a box of arrows. After all of this, I didn't that I could love him any more but on his 7th run he brought me back a tub of jelly beans.

But all good things must come to an end. When Glenn came back yesterday from his 8th run, Shane was there waiting for him. Not only did Glenn gat a harsh talking to, Shane confiscated all of the things Glenn brought (me) back. A rustle from out side the tent pulled me from my thoughts. Shane pulled the zipper down and entered our tent. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"Now, I know you two are pissed at me for taking your stuff, but -" Shane started.

"He was getting it for the group!" I bit out at him.

"The path to hell is paved with good intentions, honey." He scolded me with a look that said I should be quite, before turning to look at Glenn "Now, if you want to do supply runs, great. But, from now on, you take a group."

"Wouldn't that be more hazardous?" I mumbled darkly to myself. Luckily, Shane didn't hear me or, if he did, he just ignored me.

"From what I can tell, you didn't get all the items you needed from the city, right?" Shane asked Glenn, who only nodded. "Okay, you can go again tomorrow. I'll go ask for volunteers." He said as he turned and left.

The tent was silent, neither Glenn nor I had anything to say, so we just sat there brooding in our own little worlds. Glenn was probably thinking about tomorrow. I was thinking about taking the "Walker Stick" as I had come to call it, and shove it Shane's up-tight cop ass! That would really give him something to bitch about.

After a few hours, Amy came by to tell us dinner was ready. I wasn't hungry and I really didn't want to face Shane right now so, I just lay in my sleeping bag, not moving. I hear Glenn get up and walk to the door flap.

"What about her?" I heard Amy ask, there was worry in her voice.

"Let her sleep, last time I tried to wake her up, I got a black eye and a bruised nose." Glenn said with slight humor. I smirked, I remembered that day well.

"She pointed her gun at _me_." I struggled not to laugh. The two walked out and all was silent. I sighed and closed my eyes, slowly falling into unconscious.

I woke to the sounds of arguing and cussing. Quickly throwing on some clothes, I left the tent. I could tell it was about 6 o'clock am because the sun was just starting to rise. The 'men' were arguing about whether or not to take a car. Merle said yes but, Shane wasn't having it. Eventually Shane got his wish and everyone would walk to Atlanta, just like how Glenn had been doing. I looked around at the group and an uneasy feeling washed over me. The people leaving were T-dog, Andrea, Jacqui, Morales, Glenn, and Merle. I hated the fact the Merle was going with them, now I would have to pray that the racist bastard wouldn't throw any of them of a building. It's a team of two African Americans, a Mexican, an Asian, an extremely capable white girl, and a racist redneck...yeah, I can't see this going well.

It was time for them to go and everyone was saying final goodbyes...just in case. Andrea and Amy had been hugging for the past 10 minutes and even though Glenn and I have been separated like this before in that final moment before he left, I wrapped my arms around his ribs and buried my face into his chest.

"You had better come back." I whispered softly to him. Felt him sigh and place a hand on my head and an arm around my shoulder.

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen. I promise." He said back.

"Come on! Enough of this loving shit, stop being pussies and let's go!" merle yelled out, killing any good feeling.

"And if something does happen, pray it happens to him." Glenn mumbled and I let out a breathy laugh.

Amy and I stood at the entrance of camp, watching them 'till they were out of sight and for a while after. I began to think that Amy and I were going to wait there in that spot, for them to return. Lori and Carol called Amy over to help with laundry, leaving me alone at the front of camp.

"Why yah still waitin her? They ain't comin back fer at least a while." Daryl said from my left. I turned to see him shouldering his crossbow.

"You going hunting?" I asked him. He nodded his head

"Yeah, why?"

"Can I come?" he jerked his gaze to me in surprise.

"Huh?" I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

"I want to go hunting with you. Can I?" I asked him once again. He didn't answer me right away but after a few minutes under my intense stare, he said that it was fine. I smiled and gestured to the woods.

"After you." I said with a smirk,

"Don't ch'yah have to tell them where yer goin?" he asked looking slightly uncomfortable. At that exact moment I noticed how alone Daryl was. I realized that Merle had probably been the only one who even knew him, and that wasn't saying much. When Daryl goes hunting, Merle stays at camp. When Daryl eats dinner out side, Merle is in their tent. I have proof that in this apocalypse people grow closer, and if that's how Merle treats his brother now, I would hate to see how it was when everything was normal. It broke my heart a little, that Daryl was so alone that even a little human contact scared him.

"Nah, they don't own me. Plus I'm a little pissed at Shane so, he can kiss my ass." I told him. He swallowed thickly but, nodded and walked into the woods. I sighed and looked at camp. Amy was watching me and I pointed in the direction of the woods. She sighed heavily but, nodded. I then quickly took off into the woods, following Daryl.

We hunted around for a while and caught a few squirrel. I looked up at the sky to catch the position of the sun. It was at a 120° angle which meant that it was around 2 o'clock. I sighed, sitting down on a log and pulling stickers out of my jeans. Normally stickers wouldn't bother me because they would be low enough that they'd poke through my jeans into my boots but, out here in the woods the plants grew up to my thigh. This means that when they poke through my pants, they go into my skin. I plucked them out using my finger nails. Hearing the crunch of leaves, I looked up.

"You ok?" Daryl asked, resting his crossbow on his shoulder and tilting his head to the side.

"I'm fine." I said pulling out the last of the stickers. "Just peachy." I stood up and tried to pop my back but, the bones weren't going back into place so, I relaxed and tried again. Nothing. Not even a little pop.

"hey, Daryl. Come over here." He raised his eyebrow but, complied.

"what'd yah want meh to do?" he asked as I turned my back to him.

"I'm gonna cross my arms like this," I said placing my left hand on my right shoulder and my right hand on my left, creating an X. "I need to wrap your arms around me and pick me up." I finished looking behind me at him. He looked confused.

"Why?" he ask suspiciously.

"Because I need to pop my back and its not working. Think of this as being the manual way to do it when the automatic way doesn't work." I said with a shrug. He didn't move for a minute, just staring at me but, then he slowly came towards me. As he slowly but surely wrapped his arms around me, I couldn't help but notice a couple of things:

He was at least a foot taller than me, nearly 6' the top of my head barley made it to his shoulder.

He was really warm. Not feverish or sickly warm but, kind of like a human Furnas. I guess he converts his anger in to heat, like I do, or at least that's what Glenn says

I could feel every muscle in his arms. The way he's wrapping them around me feels like a python. I pray to god I'm never on the receiving end of one of his punches.

He was being really gentle. Not moving too fast. Not squeezing too tightly. He was being slow and cautious of me. He didn't like touching me.

"Now what?" he asked pulling me from my thoughts.

"Now just squeeze and pick me up. I said. I felt him tense and then I felt my feet leave the ground, and after about a second, I felt all the tautness of my muscles leave my body with a pop and a gasp. I must have startled Daryl because, the next thing I know, I'm on my ass and he's 10 feet away from me, looking at me with shock, cautiousness, and a little bit of guilt. I stood up, dusted my self off, and rolled my neck and shoulders creating a few more pops.

"Aw, that hit the spot. Thanks." I said as I walked over to him and clapped him on the shoulder before walking past him into the woods. It took a few seconds but soon I heard him walking behind me.

It was around 8 o'clock now and starting to get dark. Daryl had caught about 15 or so squirrels. He decided that we would spend the night in one of the thousands of trees. He found one with thick high branches and no low hanging ones. The closest one was about 8 or 9 feet from the ground.

"so...how are we supposed to get up there?" I asked with a smart-ass smirk. He frowned slightly at me and came closer to me, making my smirk disappear all most instantly. He suddenly bent down and grabbed my calves then, he hoisted me up to where I stood on his shoulders. He pushed me up a little bit more and I had to grab the branch so that I wouldn't fall. I pulled myself up and rested on the thick tree branch and looked down at him.

"That's how." He said now wearing his own smirk. One that said 'challenge me again, I dare yah!' I have to admit even though it was a little intimidating, he made it work. He backed up a couple of meters then ran at the tree, placing his foot on the trunk he used it as leverage to push him self on to my branch. I let out a squeak and he climbed on. He looked at how I scooted away from him and let out a mocking snort as he started to climb up the tree. Not wanting to be so close to the ground, I quickly followed him.

We stopped about 20 feet from the ground. I found the branch that I wanted and he went up one branch level higher and on the opposite side of the tree. I lay on my stomach and try to get comfortable. After about 10 minutes it was completely dark and the sound of the night were coming alive. The moon was blocked by clouds and a soft breeze swept through the tree.

"Daryl." I said quietly, trying to get his attention.

Silence

"Daryl?" I asked a bit louder.

Cricket chirps

Daryl!" I said in my normal day time voice.

Grunt. Aw there he is.

"Thanks for today."

Grunt. I guess I'm not gonna get any thing out of him. With a sigh I close my eyes and drift off.

I awake quickly to the sound of thunder. It sounded close. I see a flash of lightning and start to count. 1...2...3-_BOOM_! The storm is 3 miles out. The wind picks up and the smell of coming rain is in the air. I stand up and climb around the tree to where Daryl is sleeping.

"Daryl." I say reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder. My fingers barley touch him before he has my small had clasped tightly in his large one.

"What?" he growled. Wow someone's pissed when woken. I didn't answer him right away and he slowly tightened his grip on my hand, crushing my fingers and making me wince. I swallowed before opening my mouth.

"The thunder..." I started

"What about it?" he said emotionlessly. I swallowed again and looked down at my hand. He followed my gaze and hurriedly let go. I brought my hand to my chest and rubbed it softly, he watched me the whole time. I tried to say something but, just as I opened my mouth, a chill moved through the tree causing me to shiver. I couldn't look Daryl in the eyes so I kept my gaze down. I noticed he had goose-bumps on his arms, making a split decision, I moved a little further down the branch and climbed up on his. I crawled over to him and pushed his legs apart. He sat up and looked at me suspiciously.

"What do you think your doing?" he snarled at me. I locked my eyes to his.

"Keeping warm." I said completely serious. I crawled between his legs and then flipped around so that my back lay against his chest. Once I got situated and in a comfortable stop, I relaxed instantly. I could feel Daryl behind me, stiff as a bored. After a while he finally related when, he decided I wasn't planning do anything. And seconds later we were both asleep.

**AN: Thank you for reading. Please rate and review.**


	5. Chapter 5

****AN: I don't own The Walking Dead. This is purely a work of my overactive imagination.**  
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**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts.

I was awakened to the feeling of being shaken and having sweet nothings whispered in my ear.

"If your ass doesn't wake up and get the hell off of me, I'll push you out of this tree." Okay, so maybe they weren't sweet. I groaned and tried to bury my face into Daryl's chest.

"Five more minutes..." I innocently begged, sounding like child.

"Oh, hell NO!" he growled. He placed his hands on my back and pushed me into a sitting position with a grunt. I teetered for a bit, thinking if I should get up or mess with him for a bit. I chose the one that would likely get me pushed 20 feet to the ground. With a soft moan, I relaxed my self and fell back against him.

"God damn it!" he barked, as he caught my limp form by the shoulders. "If you don't get your ass off me in 5 seconds I swear to you, that if there is ever a walker near by, I will shoot you in the fucking ankle and leave you there." Okay, the first one was funny but, that one was just scary.

From my time with Daryl, I've noticed that he and Merle are both different and similar. Merle is outgoing and perverted, Daryl is withdrawn and awkward. Merle is a druggy but, I have yet to even _smell _anything other than the natural earth on Daryl. The two brothers have more differences than similarities but still, blood is thicker than water. They both have tempers, they both have major problems, and both of them are unpredictable. So, yeah, I'll admit it. Daryl Dixon scares me, and he scares me a lot.

I sit up, scoot away from him and stretch. I look out and notice that the sun is only just rising. I hate the sunrise and, I have no idea why. Most people would like it, especially now, it's a symbol that you've made it to another day. To me it's just another step into the unknown.

We climb down from the tree and while Daryl can jump the whole 9 feet down, I'm not that fearless, so I settle for the next best thing. I jump onto him, causing him to stumble and have us both go down.

"YOU BITCH!" he shouts. I stand up and give him a sheepish smile before turning shit and running into the woods. "Get back here!" he's several feet behind me but, gaining. I leap over logs, dodge Thorne bushes, duck low hanging branches and finally I lose him. Although once I caught my breath I noticed that losing was not as good of a thing as I had originally thought.

"Daryl?" I called "Daryl?" I walked around for a while, trying to retrace my steps. This had been a bad idea, a very bad idea. I hadn't ever been in these woods and as I was running from him, I didn't look for any landmarks. I heard a bush rustle behind me and I spun around. "Daryl?" I whispered backing way from the bush. I half expected for him to jump out, wave the crossbow in my face, and tell me how stupid I am. But no, the only response I got was more rustling. I quickly turned and sprinted through the woods. I ran for about 5 minutes before my lungs started killing me and I had to take a breather. I needed to clam down. I started tip-toeing through the woods listening for any sounds from Daryl or walkers.

God, I was stupid. I know I shouldn't have messed with Daryl this morning and I know I shouldn't have jumped on him either. I really messed up when I ran from him. For all I know he could have got attacked, or he saw a squirrel or something and got distracted, or he could have just given up on chasing me and left me for dead. To tell the truth, the last option is the more likely of all of them.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't notice the figure behind me until I heard the tell-tale moan of any walker. I whirled around to face him in all his rotting horror. I was wide eyed. How did I not notice it? Or a better question, how did I not _smell_ it? The Geek was fouler than most. Its nose was only a hole in its face; the flesh from the cheek bones to the chin was gone. It was a pale gray color and its eyes were rolled into the back of its head. And the whole thing was bloated from baking in the hot Georgia sun, no doubt.

I patted my sides for a weapon. There wasn't one. I looked down quickly, to see if maybe I had missed it, I didn't. I had no weapons on me, and the walker began to stumble after. My breathing became labored and I quickly turned to flee. I ran around trees and then to a sharp right... into a dead end with steep soft dirt slopes 6 feet high on all three sides. I twisted around to find a new way but, when I did I saw Mr. Nasty at the entrance, dragging his foot behind him as he came closer. I backed up and slightly stumbled but, luckily, I caught my balance. I looked around for anything I could use; a stick, a rock, maybe a sharp broken bottle? Nope, nothing.

I had thought about how I would die a couple of time in my life but I never thought it would honestly end up like this. I guess I could say I predicted a few factors, like dieing alone, dieing painfully or, both but, I never thought I would die alone and painfully by the disgusting hands of a diseased cannibalistic person. I bit my lip to stop my tears from spilling as he came closer.

In a final attempt to save myself once he got an arms reach away, I faked to the right and ran to the left. He grabbed the back of my shirt and was strong enough to yank me back and throw me to the ground in my previous spot. For having such soft dirt, the ground was pretty hard. I was a little disoriented but as soon as the walker climbed on me, it quickly went away. Its hands were on either side of my rib cage and it was bending down to bite me. I shrieked and thrust my hands up into its face, away from its mouth and tried to push it off me.

I was crying by now and slowly losing strength, I noticed this by how it got closer and closer to my face. 'This is it.' I thought 'this is how I'm gonna to die! Alone, painfully, and helplessly.' I let out a harsh sob 'this isn't how I want to die! I'm too young and, even though I don't have much to live for any more, I still have things I wanna do! I wanna stay up late and talk with Amy, split the junk food with Glenn when he comes back from his runs, HELL, I WANNA LOSE MY FIRST FUCKING KISS!" but in the back of my head, I knew none of those things were gonna happen especially the last one.

The thought of death crossed through my mind, and I slowly accepted it. I could even see Death, through my tears, standing at the top of the slopes. _Twang whistle squelch _

An arrow went through the head of the walker and I quickly pulled my hands away in shock as it went limp on top of me. I fell into a sort of paralyzed state. I heard and sliding sound and my name being called but, I didn't move. I felt rough, calloused hands push the walker off and pull me away. The hands pick me up to my feet but, as soon as they let go I fell to my knees. I couldn't take me eyes off the now dead body of the walker.

The owner of the hands knelt down in front of me and placed the hands on my shoulders. The person was seemed to be talking, I could hear a buzz but, I couldn't make out the words. The person started shaking me and even though it was rough, it started to make things clearer.

"-llon! DILLON! God damn it! Are you listening to me?" a rough worried voice bellowed. I turned my gaze from the corpse on to the hard stare that Daryl was giving me. As I looked at him, he seemed to be searching my eyes for resignation. When he got what he was looking for he relaxed a little, until I started to look back at the walker. "Hey. Hey. Dillon. Look at me!" he commanded, grasping the bottom of my chin and forcing my head to look at him. "Are you okay? Did you get bit?" I shook my head but, didn't say any thing. He took in a deep breath and let it out heavily though his nose. "Okay, come on." He said softly as he grasped my bicep and pulled me along.

We walked around for a couple of hours. During this time Daryl killed 12 more squirrels, bring our total to 27 dead rodents and he also shot a deer, which we were now tracking. Neither of us had said a word to each other, one reason being that if we talked we might spook the deer more and another being that we just had nothing to say. My shock had worn of about an hour ago, when I broke down crying and hurling out the continence of my stomach. Daryl had just stood there, not saying a word but, not judging either. Daryl stopped and made a hand gesture to a rock formation, indicating that he thought the deer was behind it.

We walked up and he walked around first, with me following. We walked out and immediately all weapons are pointed at us. We both freeze, till Daryl saw the deer and the headless walker.

"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it all knawed on by this filthy, disease-bag, motherless, poxy, bastard." He shouted through clenched teeth as he kicked it with every syllable.

"Calm down son, that's not helpin" Dale said but, this only pissed Daryl off a bit more. I walked over and stood by Glenn and he wrapped his arm around me.

"What'a yah know about it ole man? Why don't you go take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?" Daryl asked harshly, tuning to pull the arrows out of the deer. "We been tracking this deer fer miles." He sighed out. "Gonna drag it back to camp. Cook us up some venison. Whada yah think? Think we can cut'a round this chewed up part right here?" he asked drawing around it with an arrow while he looked at the group.

"I would not risk that." Shane said drawing our attention. Daryl sighed again.

"It's a damn shame..." he said taking one last look at the poor deer. "Well, I got us some squirrel, bout a dozen or so. That'll have ta do." He turned and just then the head of the walker opened its eyes and mouth.

"Oh God." Groaned Amy, who I just noticed was there, and was esquroted by her sister back to camp. Daryl pulled out his crossbow.

"Come on people, what the hell?" he fired a bolt strait into its left eye. "its gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" he said pulling out the bolt and walking into camp. Glenn pulled me close.

"Where were you last night? I got back and nobody knew where you were till Amy came and said you went off into the woods! When you didn't come back by sundown, I panicked. I couldn't sleep all night." He said walking beside me. "And then you pop out with Daryl of all people?" he asked probably questioning my sanity. I smiled softly at him.

"I was hunting." I whispered to him.

"With Daryl?" he raised but my focus was no longer on him but, the shiny new read mustang with black racing stripes and a busted out window. "Like my new car?" he was wearing a smug grin.

"very." I smirked, then out of nowhere I was pelted with squirrels. I spun around to yell at Daryl only to see him get tackled by Shane. Now I hate having squirrels launched at me as much as the next guy but, was that necessary. Then I see Daryl pull a knife, I try to go to him, maybe to clam him down but, Glenn grabs my wrist and forces me to only watch. Daryl lunges at a new guy I heard be called Rick. Rick grabs his wrist and twists it so he drops the knife, which Rick puts through his belt loop. Shane gets Daryl in a head lock and starts pulling him to the ground. I pull against Glenn's grasp trying to get free; it hurts me to see this. Daryl doesn't like to be touched and seeing him fight for his freedom is painful to watch.

"YOU BEST LET ME GO!" he shouts at Shane pulling at the arm around his neck.

"Nah, I think its best if I don't." Shane said calmly and that pissed me off even more. He said it as if this was a game to him, as if Daryl was disposable. I growled deep in my throat and struggled to get out of Glenn's clutch which tightened and he was now using both hands. Dale and Morales were probably looking at me weird but I didn't care.

"Ugh! Choke hold is illegal!" Daryl shouted

"Okay, you can file a complaint." Shane grunted. I let out an angered screech as Glenn pulled me back into his chest to keep me from going anywhere; my screech brought the attention of Jim, T-dog, the women and the children as well as Rick for a split second before knelt down by Daryl.

"Come on now we can keep this up all day." Said Shane as Daryl's breathing became frantic and labored. 'No you can't! Only till I get out and kick your fucking asses!" I roared in my head.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic, think we could manage that?" Rick said get close to Daryl's red face. "Think we can manage that?" he asked with a little more force. Daryl didn't say anything but, he stopped fighting. Rick and Shane shared a look and Shane twisted Daryl's head as he threw him. I growled louder this time and I felt a shiver go through Glenn.

"What I did was not on a whim." Rick said bending down to where Daryl lay. "Your brother does not work or play well with others."

"S'not Rick's fault," said T-dog "I had the key...I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl raged

"Well I dropped it down the drain." Daryl let out what others thought to be a snort and picked himself of the ground.

"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't" he said throwing down the gravel

"Maybe this will. I chained the door to the roof so the Geeks couldn't get at him with a pad-lock."

"That's gotta count for something." Rick interjected. Daryl just looked at him, and then wiped the sweat and tears from his eyes.

"HELL WITH ALL Y'ALL! Just tell me where he is...so's, I can go get 'em." He bagged.

"...He'll show you." Said Lori softly "Idn't that right?" Rick nodded

"I'm goin back."

Daryl walked past us and got his crossbow before walking of to his tent. I stopped fighting and watched him go. Glenn finally released me just as Rick and Shane came over to us. I instantly yanked Daryl's knife from his belt buckle and shoved it into my boot. This earned me weird looks.

"What?" I snapped hostilely, looking around at each man.

"What the hell was that?" Shane bit back "You were over here soundin like you were being torched!"

"SO! What do you care, you fucking sadist?" I roared

"Hey now, calm down Dill." Glenn said trying to be reason able but, I wasn't having it.

"Calm down. Calm down? CALM DOWN! Why the hell should I do that? Huh? What if it was you chained to that roof?" I screamed at him "WE have NOBODY! No brothers, no sisters, no parents, no one who truly gives a damn about us! Its me and you! And I almost DIED today! So tell me Glenn, if I had died today, who would go after you Asian ass?" I yelled in his face. I know I was being harsh and mean but, I was scared and angry and I didn't know what to do.

"What do you mean you almost died today?" Glenn asked taking hold of my shoulders. Apparently my loud emotional ranting drew the attention of the whole group. I took a deep calming breath.

"Today I decided to be an idiot. I ran off and got lost. I ran into a walker and it chased me into a dead end. I tried to get around it but it grabbed me, threw me down and got on top of me. I had my hands on its face; I could feel its breath on me as well as its weight. And to tell you the truth after about 5 minutes, I was ready to let it have me." My eyes didn't leave Glenn; his face was a mixture of fear, disgust, and ready to cry. In my peripheral I could see people looking at me in shock, mouths open or covered with their hands. "At the moment I was ready to give up, Daryl popped out of nowhere and shot the bastard." I finished with a nod and as I turned away I looked at Shane.

"I owe him my life. Remember that next time you put your hands on him, because I will kick your pansy ass." I growled, stocking off to my own tent.

About a minute after I lay down, Glenn comes in and lays behind me wrapping his arms around me. I feel him start to cry. I start to cry too.

**AN: Thank you for reading. Please rate and review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all it had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts...

"That's four." Dale observed as I walked up to Glenn and the rest of those planning the rescue party.

"It's not just four." Shane argued and was about to continue before I cut him off.

"You're right. It's five. I'm going too." I stated, leaving no room to be told differently. All eyes turned on me as I hoisted the spiked mace; I've lovingly dubbed the 'walker stick', onto my shoulder.

"No." Glenn and Daryl synced. I swiveled to give each a respective glare.

"And why the hell not?!"

"Because," Glenn started, drawing my attention "I want you to be safe..." he trailed off as my annoyance began to make itself known.

"Oh yes Glenn, safe, because it is soo safe up here. No, Glenn, I'll tell yah what it is. It's scary up here. It's scary not knowing if my best friend or one of my newly acquired ones aren't going to make it back. So I'm going, I'm helping, and there's not a damn thing you can do to stop me." I grinned in his face, knowing I had him beat. Glenn has long learned that if I wanna do something, then I'm gonna do it. Too bad Daryl has yet to learn this.

"You won't if I knock you out." He growled from of to the side.

"You wouldn't do that." I smiled, not actually knowing if he would or wouldn't but, being pretty sure.

"Yeah, maybe not but, I will tie you to a tree." My smile slipped. He would do that, and he'd have no problem doing that. "Plus, think about it as punishment for jumping out of the tree onto me and then making me track your skinny ass thru the woods." He and I glared at each other for a bit before I finally gave.

"Well damn" I heard Glenn as he muttered my thoughts. Neither of us not used to me losing my fight.

"It's back to four" Dale tallied

"Look! You're putting every single one of us at risk, just know that Rick." Shane quilted "I mean come on you saw that walker, It was here in camp!" I turned to Glenn,

"Y'all had one too?" I whispered only to get a nod from him in replay.

"It seems to me what you really need most here, are more guns." Rick countered Shane.

"Right," Glenn said, stepping away from me and towards both Rick and Shane, "The guns."

"What guns?" Shane asked raising an eyebrow.

"Six shotguns, 2 high powered rifles, and over a dozen hand guns, I cleaned out the station before I left." That made both my eyebrows rise, because that is a lot of fire power.

"Ammo?" Shane inquired

"about 700 rounds, assorted." Rick told him as I whistled softly

"You went through Hell to find us." Lori said before I turned to her in surprise, she knew this guy? "yo-you just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" huh, maybe he was her brother or something.

"Dad, I-I don't want you to go." Carl begged. My eyes widened before narrowing, I thought Shane was with Lori. Well, this is about to get interesting.

"To hell with the guns, Shane's right." She argued her husband "Merle Dixon?! He's not worth one of your lives, even with gun thrown in!" Rick went on to talk about how he owed some debt as he talked his family into letting him go. After all was said and done I walked with Glenn to the white cube van they had acquired on the last run.

"I don't like this." I mumbled as I got in the passenger seat.

"I know."

"You better come back."

"Don't I always?" he asked turning to me. I glanced up at him and took his hand as he began to back the truck up to where Rick and T-dog where asking Dale for blot cutters. Daryl climbed in from the back. He stalked around for a little bit before coming to the front. He hesitated slightly when he look and saw Glenn and I clasping hands but after a second, his foot was on the horn. He honked 3 times before for yelling out.

"COME ON! LET'S GO!" I could hear the agitation in his voice. He came back to the front and pointed to me "Out. Now." I gave Glenn's hand another squeeze before doing as the Redneck said. But only because he looked ready to hit something or someone and as I've mentioned before, I don't wanna be on the receiving end. I walked past Rick and Shane as the later said

"Four men, four rounds, what are the odds?" I swallowed heavily before stalking to Glenn's and my tent with my head down. I was only about a minute later when I heard the van leave and it was only then that I allowed a couple of tears to be shed.

30 minutes later the zipper of my tent was pulled down and the blond head of Amy peaked through.

"Hey," she whispered softly and I responded with small smile and a nod. "Um...Carol, Jacqui, Andrea and I are going down to the quarry to do laundry, you uhh, you wanna come with?"

"Ha, I thought that I told you that I didn't 'women's work'." I snorted as I used my fingers to do air quotations.

"You have, a lot of times." She smiled "And I'm not asking you to work, I'm asking you to spend some girl time with us. When was the lat time you hung out with a girl?" I just shrugged and gave her a smirk. She gave a laugh and told me to come on.

Down at the quarry, I sat between Amy and Carol. I like Carol; she was sweet and always looking after people. I've looked after Sophia a couple of times for her when she was to busy to do it. She and Sophia were good people. But upon saying that, Carol is the type of woman I never want to be. She's meek and afraid and it's a well known fact that her husband Ed is an abusive dick. She doesn't deserve it but I don't understand why she won't stop it.

There was a loud splash that pulled me from my thoughts and I looked up to see Shane in the water pushing waves at Carl was the boy skimmed them with a net.

"I'm beginning to question the division of labor here." Jacqui muttered pulling forth some of that sassy black woman attitude.

"Yup, why do you think that I don't do it? It ain't fair." I smirked as she and Andrea came to the opposite sides of Carol and Amy.

"Can some one explain to me how the women ended up doin at the Hetra McDaniel work?" She quipped

"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" Amy smirked into her work as Carol looked back presumably to glance at Ed, who was playing watch dog.

"It's just the way it is." She handed Jacqui a shirt to be rung. The four worked in silence for a bit and I would ring the water out of a shirt for them when Jacqui was already workin on one. Carol was, surprisingly, the one to break the quiet.

"I do miss my Maytag." She reminisced

"I miss my Benz." Andrea put forth

"I miss my coffee maker, with that gold drip filter and built in grinder, honey." Jacqui daydreamed

"My Computer. Texting." Amy sulked

"I miss my bed." I sighed "and Cartoons."

"I miss my vibrator." Andrea shrugged earning smiles and laughs from the others and a shocked snort and smile from me.

"Me too." The quiet voice of Carol whispered and my head whipped around to give her the same shocked smile as the others laughed even louder. I felt good to laugh but the fun was stopped by Ed asking what was so funny.

"Just swapping war stories Ed," Andrea gave but Ed just came closer as he smoked. I glared out the corner of my eye at him but Andrea was still the only one to address the asshat. "Problem, Ed?" she sighed.

"None that concerns you." He replied before indicating to Carol "and you otta focus on your work, this ain't no comedy club."

"It is since you used a double negative." I muttered earning a glare to the back of my head. Andrea scoffed but we went quiet. I looked up to see Lori and Shane arguing but she quickly left after Carl. The presence of Ed was growing thicker by the minute and Andrea seemed to be sick of it. She stood up and turned to him.

"Tell you what Ed, you don't like the way your laundry is done then, you are welcome to do it yourself. Here." She smirked as she tossed him the shirt she had been working on. Only to get it thrown back in her face a second later as she let out a surprised 'Oh!'

"Ain't my job missy" he sniped as he brought the cigarette back to his lips. Amy tried to calm Andrea down but we could all see that that wasn't going to happen.

"And just what is your job Ed?!" she scoffed "Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?"

"Well it sure ain't listening to some uppity smart mouthed bitch, tell yah what." He berated. I stood from where I was sitting, I could feel this getting out of hand but Andrea wasn't gonna step down. "Come on, let's go." He addressed Carol and I moved to get in front of her. But she just stood and softly tried to move around me.

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you Ed." Andrea defended

"And I say it's none of your business. Come on now, you heard me." Carol started to leave by we tried to keep her to stay.

"Please, it doesn't matter." She whispered. Like hell it doesn't!

"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just cause you're some College educated cooz, alright?" He growled in Andrea's face. Her mouth dropped in shock and she scoffed. Ed turned his attention back to his wife. "Now come on, or you're gonna regret it later."

"so she can show up with fresh bruises later Ed?" Jacqui was on the verge of crying. "Yeah we've seen them." She finished and he just chuckled.

"Stay out of it." He smirked. "This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't wanna keep prodin the bull here, okay? Now, I am done talking! Come on." He gripped Carol's arm.

"No" Andrea said although if it where to Carol or Ed, I'm not sure. And the next thing I know is that Ed slapped Carol across the face. That's when the chaos really began. The other women started screaming at him and I lunged forward and got a swift punch to his fat ugly head. But he reciprocated with a solid hit square between my eyes and across the bridge of my nose. I saw black and fell back. Amy was at my side and I finally came completely coherent about the time Shane was finishing up beating the shit out of Ed. Carol was sobbing and ran to her bleeding husband. Shane walked back to camp as I added him to my mental list of people I didn't wanna be hit by. Amy helped me up and the world spun.

"Ugh. I think I need to lie down." I groaned. Amy just nodded, all of us clearly affected by what just took place. The blond led me up to Dale, who shined a flash light in my eye.

"Well... even though the bruising is already pretty bad, I don't think you have a concussion." He soothed, handing me a wet wash cloth. "Sorry, I don't have an ice pack, this will have to do." I smiled my thanks and went to lie down in my tent.

I woke up to the smell of fish. Not that nasty rotting dead fish smell but, of fresh cooking fish. I climbed out of the tent and walked over to where Amy and The rest were sitting.

"Hey, sleeping beauty. It's about time you woke up. I was beginning to think you had slipped into a come." Amy laughed at my rumpled appearance. I gave her a sleepy smile and flashed her the bird. I rubbed my eye but pulled away, flinching, as pain shoot across my face.

"Are the guys back yet?" I asked looking around the camp.

"No, but they should be soon." Lori spoke from off to my right, "You want some fish?" I looked at the plate and while it looked great, I didn't feel that hungry.

"Uhh, naw. I think I'll wait for Glenn and them to get back." I waved the plate away as I took my seat next to my blond friend.

"Pass the fish please." Carl asked quietly and his mom responded with a 'here you go' in the same tone. Complements on the food that Amy and Andrea caught circled around the campfire.

"I gotta ask you man," Morales started, directing his words at Dale "It's been driving me crazy."

"What?" the old man smiled with a slight laugh

"That watch"

"What's wrong with my watch?"

"I see you, everyday, same time, winding that thing, like a village priest saying mass." Nods traveled around as we agreed, all seeing this one time ore another

"I've wondered this myself" Jacqui smiled

"I'm missing the point." Dale shrugged

"Unless I've misread the signs," Jacqui started again, "the world seems to have come to an end. Or at least hit a speed bump for a good long while."

"But then there's you, everyday, winding that stupid watch." Morales finished

"Time, it's important to track of it, isn't it?" Dale offered "the days at least, don't you think Andrea? Help me out here." I looked to her but she just laughed him off. Dale proceeded to go into this quote about conquering time and then forgetting it. Everything was good for a moment, Peaceful even. I felt Amy Stand up from beside me.

"Where you going?" Her sister asked.

"I have to pee." Amy sighed, "Geez, you try to be discrete around here." I snickered at her with a few of the others.

"We're out of toilet paper." Amy called a minute later. I smiled and turned to joke that she could wipe with a leaf, but the smile was whipped of my face as the Walker grabbed onto her wrist and took a bite. After that, all I heard was screaming. I couldn't think straight. The shock wore off just before a Walker could get with in arms reach. I backed up and reached for a weapon, only to find empty air. I glanced down quickly and then back to the Walker that was closing in. Being unarmed, I did the only thing I could. I ran. I ran around Walkers and survivors, those being eaten and those fighting.

I got to the edge of the campsite and used what momentum I had to help swing myself on to a branch. I had collected a tail of 3 or 4 Geeks; I was too busy fleeing to truly count. I was able to hoist myself onto a sturdy branch before the panic attack started. Just like before, with the walker in the woods, everything became a blur. I could see and hear everything. Screams of fear and pain, the gun shots that seemed to multiply for some reason, the undead moans but, nothing registered. I was terrified and alone on his little branch. And then everything just went quiet.

The first thing that started becoming clear was shouts for Amy. Next were shouts for me.

"DILLION!?" I could hear fear and tears in the young but masculine voice. It took me a couple of seconds to recognize that the voice was Glenn. I had never heard him sound like that. I wanted to call out to him, to tell him I was okay and where I was but, my voice wouldn't work. I shakily climbed down the tree. I must have missed one of the limbs because my slow decent became a really fast one and it only takes a second before I'm laying on my back, knocking the rest of the wind out of me. I feel something grab my arms and pull, out of confusion and pure fear, I scream and kick out. There's a harsh grunt and the grip is released. I scramble to my feet and take a few steps before colliding with a familiar body.

Glenn wraps his arms around me and we slowly sink back to the ground. It's only then, when I'm sure I'm safe for the time being and that my Best and now seeming only friend is too, that my sobs spill out and shake the both of us to our cores. If this had been before The Turn and it had been any one else but Glenn, I would have been horrified for them to see me like this. But its not, the world has fallen and Glenn has already seen me at my worst many times before. Plus I know I'm not alone as I feel his silent tears soak through my shirt. Glenn and I stay like that until the sun comes up. He and I then go to help clean up the blood bath.


	7. Chapter 7

**What doesn't kill you**

Normal, that's all it had been. School was normal. Jobs were normal. _Life_ was normal. But then everything fell apart. Everything went to Hell. And that is where this all starts...

We started with the Walkers first. Daryl would bash their heads in with a pick axe and then Morales, Glenn or I would throw them into a fire. Every time I was done with one I'd look over at Andrea and what once was Amy. When I had first saw that my friend was truly dead, I crouched my Andrea and sat with her for a while, both of us in silent mourning and despair over the young girl. I said what I could of my goodbyes, if they could be called that. But eventually my need to move, to do something, came too much for even sadness to surpass. I gave Andrea a hug and left her with her sister's corpse.

I glanced up at the sound of a gun locking. The older blond had her pistol pointed at Rick. After a second or so, he nodded and backed off. I knew what every one was thinking. That they need to expose of Amy right away but, I sided with Andrea and anyone who wanted to take out what was left of my friend before it was time, would also have to go through me.

"Wake up Jimbo, we got some work to do." Daryl said as he walked back from a small meeting about what was to be done about Amy. I stood by as Daryl help Morales start moving the body of one of the guys we had here, I wish I was better at remembering names, but I had probably only talked to him once and only for a couple of words.

"Hey, hey, whoa, what are you guys doing?!" Glenn asked, confusion and hurt lacing his voice, it was enough to pull me out of my self-sorry thoughts. Daryl and Morales had been dragging the body to the fire. "This pile is for geeks! Our people go over there!"

"What's the difference? Their all infected." Daryl growled. I was stunned, how dare he, so fucking what if he didn't get along with these people? They where part of us!

"Our people go in that row over there." Glenn whimpered. I stood beside him with my arms folded.

"Don't do this" I begged as Daryl and Morales stood up.

"We don't burn them!" Glenn cried beside me and I gripped his hand to help keep him calm. "We bury them. Understand?" Daryl looked from Glenn, to me, to Morales before him and the later bent back down to move the body.

"You reap what you sow." Daryl called to us as he drug the body to the pile of our dead.

"You know what? Shut up man!" Morales berated as they dropped the corpse. Well, Daryl more threw it down.

"YALL LEFT MY BROTHER FOR DEAD!" the redneck shouted at us "YOU HAD THIS COMIN!" he stalked of and I closed my eyes trying to ward off a headache that had begun to take hold. The smell and now Daryl's shouts where doing nothing to help.

"A Walker got him! A Walker bit Jim!" Jacqui screamed and my eyes flew open in a rush. It wouldn't be true! The black woman was backing away from and he was looking panicked as the men surrounded him. I put my hand over my mouth as Daryl began yelling again, only this time it was for Jim to show us the bite. Jim grabbed the shovel to defend himself. The men kept yelling at him and T-Dog restrained him from behind.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim repeated, I couldn't tell if it was for our sake or, if it was for his. Daryl rushed up and lifted the mechanics shirt revealing the angry red circle of teeth marks. Once it was shown, everyone jerked away from him and I gave a tearless sob. Why was this happening?! Haven't we already lost enough?! Everyone was in shock as Jim continued his mantra.

"I say we put a pick axe in his head" Daryl mumbled as we all stood in a circle trying to decide what to do with Jim. "And the dead girl's and be done with it."

"Her name is Amy." I whispered but it was to low for anyone to hear me.

"Is that what you'd want?" Shane interrogated "For you?"

"Yeah. And I'd thank yah while you did it." Daryl sneered

"I hate to say it, I never thought I would but, maybe Daryl's right..." Dale muttered. I turned to him in shock.

"Jim's not a monster Dale. Or some rabid dog." Rick put in "he's sick. A sick man. And if we go down that road where do we draw that line?"

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers or them to be." Daryl stated

"What if we could get him help?" Rick asked "I heard the CDC was workin on a cure."

"I heard that too," Shane agreed "I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."

"What if the CDC is still up an running?"

"Man that is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot." Rick reasoned "shelter, protection, refuge..."

"You want those things alright. I do to," cut in Shane "now, if they exist, their at the army base, Fort Benning."

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori said

"That is right, but it's away from the hot zone." Shane countered. "Listen to me, if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed, and we'll be safe there."

As Rick and Shane argued about where to go, I saw Daryl glance a Jim. He nodded as he turned back to face the group.

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do but somebody needs to have some goddamn ball to take care of this damn problem!" He yelled, charging at Jim. I was after him in a flash but Rick got to him first pointing a gun at his head.

"We don't kill the living." Rick seethed

"That's funny, coming from the man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl retorted but, he lowered the axe. And Shane told him to put it down, which he did after a few seconds and with a whole lot of rage. He got it back after Rick had moved Jim somewhere safe.

"Dillion?" a soft voiced asked me, and I turned to see Carol, "could you go look after Sophia for a few minutes? There's something I need to do." I nodded and walked off to find the little red head. It was only 20 minutes later that I heard a gun going off and knew that Amy was gone. We all gathered again, when I was time to bury our dead. Daryl was saying something and Lori was saying something else. I wasn't listening to either of them. I just gripped Glenn's hand and kept my eyes low, away from the sun.

It took about an hour to bury them all. Amy was lasted. Andrea did it herself even though Dale tried to help. Everyone cried and when it was all said and done we went back to camp. At this point my head was killing me and I went straight for the tent. I had only gotten to the door when Glenn stopped.

"You okay?" he asked, coming beside me.

"no." I whispered and he took my hand but I pulled away.

"What's wrong?"

"uhh...I think...I think I may have been bit..." I couldn't look at him, I didn't need to.

"...No..."

"Glenn.."

"No!" he shouted, earning us some stares.

"Glenn, shh."

"You're fine. You're okay." He hissed, tears threatening to fall

"What's going on over here?" Daryl demanded. Glenn put himself between the redneck and I

"Back off!" Glenn growled,

"Glenn, stop."

"NO! You're fine!"

"Is she bit?!"

"Stay away from her!"

Glenn and Daryl are yelling and drawing the attention of the others who, when they hear the word 'Bite' all go into a panic. My head is splitting and I feel like I'm going to be sick. All it took was a large, calloused hand wrapping around my bicep and a harsh tug, to make my world go black and for a few seconds after I could still hear screaming.

Splitting pain shot through my head as it hit against something solid and I let out a slight shriek as I gripped it.

"Bout time Sunshine." I looked over at the speaker and just blinked a couple of times till I was able to fully comprehend that I was sitting beside Daryl in the Cab of his truck.

"...Wha...?" well that was intelligent.

"We're heading to the CDC." He explained, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Why?" I groaned

"To try and get Jim some help I guess." He shrugged, "Don't really make much since to me. He ain't gonna make it anyhow"

"What about me?" I asked finally getting him to look at me.

"You're fine, just as your little boyfriend said. Only thing wrong with yah is that big ass bruise you got across your face and the fact that you haven't eaten for the passed couple of days. Add all the stress and that's sure to make some feel like their dying." He told me.

"My boyfriend?" since when did I have one of those?

"The china-man?" he scoffed. Oh.

"One, Glenn is Korean. Two, he ain't my boyfriend. He's my family and all I got left." I stated. Daryl mumbled a few things before we fell into awkward silence.

"So...what happen?" He asked

"Are you talking about the bruise or the lack of self care?"

"Both."

"The bruise is from Ed, he hit me while you where off looking for Merle," I started only to be cut off as a large, calloused hand took hold of my lower jaw and turned me to face its owner. Daryl's eyes slid across my face, taking in the details. His eyes didn't ever meet mine but I guess they wouldn't have too, seeing as his tough alone made me freeze. There was a honk from in front of us and our little caravan slowed to a stop. Daryl got out first and I tried to follow but as soon as I tried to stand, I nearly fell forward.

"Whoa. Yeah, I think its best you stay in the truck." He snorted as he pushed me back up onto the seat, but he left the door open as he left to check what was going on. Glenn came by after a few minutes.

"Hey," I greeted as he came up and hugged me.

"I'm glad you're okay." he mumbled into my shoulder. "You really had me scared."

"Ha, you're not the only one. I was sure I was a goner. So what's going on?"

"The radiator hose on the RV is shot, we're gonna try to fix it though. Shane just left to see what he can get from a gas station. And Jim isn't doing so well, we don't know if he's gonna make it." He informed me. I frowned, Jim was a good man, and he was the first of the group I had connected to. I had spent most of the month at Camp Living helping him out on the cars and such. But, there was nothing I could do about the virus spreading through him.

"We're leaving Jim here, come on and say your goodbyes." Daryl said walking over to us.

"What? No! You can't!" I cried "Please. Don't do this." I gripped his forearm, stopping him as he had begun to turn and walk way. He looked down at it for a second or two before softly brushing me off.

"Ain't my or anyone else's choice. It's his. It's what he wants." He reassured walking off. I took in a shaky breath, the feeling of loss taking over me. Glenn quietly helped me up and over to the tree on the side of the road where Rick and Shane helped him to.

"Hey...another damn tree." Jim breathed with a slight chuckle in his voice. Shane was crouched in front of him.

"Hey Jim? I mean you know it doesn't need to be this." The curly haired ex-cop told him and I, for once, agreed with him.

"No...It's good." Jim sighed "the breeze feels nice." His breathing was becoming labored. Shane muttered something and backed away from him. Jacqui was next to say goodbye, she kissed him on the cheek. Rick walked up and offered him a gun but, the dieing man refused saying he was okay. Dale was forth and Glenn and I were next. I kneeled beside him and tried to hug him as gently as I could. Glenn stood behind me and nodded to him.

"I'm gonna miss you." I grieved

"Don't let them treat you any differently." He smiled and even though it hurt, I returned it. Glenn wrapped his arm around my shoulder as he led me away.

"So...are you gonna ride in the RV or are you gonna stay with Daryl?" Glenn wondered quietly. I looked to the RV to see Jacqui crying.

"I'm gonna go with Daryl, I need the quiet." I whispered and he nodded his head in understanding. We each went to our respective vehicles and though Daryl raised and eye brow when I joined him, he didn't question me. As we drove off, I spared one last look at Jim. The rest of the way to the CDC was silent other then the sounds of the truck.

We arrived at the Center of Disease Control and were face with by far the worst I had ever seen of this plague. The smell of the decomposing dead invaded the air. The sound of flies just added to the idea of the smell of the corpses that littered the ground. Bodies of civilians and soldiers a like were every where. The hope I had for this place was fading and I could see the same in the other's faces. Rick led the way to the doors of the CDC while Shane guarded us from the left whispering words to keep us calm and collected. Daryl, I guess, was protecting from the right. We coughed every now and then as the stench became even worse. The flies where everywhere and I could hear Glenn starting to gag for the horror of this place. I didn't blame him, I was too. Rick and Shane started to get loud with their ushering words as we stepped over and around corpses and some one shushed. The sun was fading fast and I was starting to get scared that we'd end up trapped in the city at night.

When we arrived at the entrance, I noticed that the metal stutters were pulled down. Rick tried to lift them before stepping back. Shane hit them a couple of times.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog proclaimed

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick argued and in some way tried to comfort us. If they where down, there where people, right?

"Walkers!" Daryl exclaimed and someone let out a sob. It was a single one but like cockroaches, where there was one, there where many. This one unnerved me for the simple fact that it was in a military uniform. "You led us into a grave yard!" He turned to charge Rick.

"He made a call!" Shane defended for his friend

"It was the wrong damn call!" the redneck shouted, getting louder in his anger

"Shut up! You hear me? Shut up!" Shane growled shoving Daryl back and pointing at him. "Rick this is a dead end."

"Where we gonna go?!" sobbed carol. Lori agreed and Shane tried again with going to Fort Benning. But on what? We didn't have anything left!

"It's a 100 miles!" Lori argued, clutching Carl to her.

"It's a 100 and 25! I checked the map." Glenn offered helplessly

"Forget Fort Benning! We need answers tonight!" The brunette demanded as Carl gave off a harsh sob

"We'll think of something!" her husband brokenly reassured

"Come on. Let's go." Daryl growled from beside me, grapping my bicep as he pulled me along, Glenn just a little bit behind. We had all started heading for the cars when Rick stopped us by saying that the camera moved. Shane argued to get Rick away from the doors but the smaller ex-cop wasn't budging. He hit the doors.

"YOU'RE KILLING US!" he raged "YOU'RE KILLING US!" and just as Shane was practically Picking Rick up and dragging him away, the metal shutters lifted and cast us all in a white, nearly heavenly light.


End file.
